The story of the Pribilof fur seals

£6 £■ 3 ; 5e 1/3

THE STORY OF THE PRIBILOF FUR SEALS

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/storyofpribiloffOOunit

The northern fur seal is one of the world's most fascinating creatures.
The animal itself, however, is no more fascinating than the story of its
life since man first interjected himself into the seal's habitat. It is
a story of both flagrant plunder and outstanding international wildlife
conservation.

This era is one in which man has begun to appraise the price he has paid
for progress, in the form of damaged environment and diminished resources.
Even the very young talk knowledgeably of such things as endangered species,
depletion and extinction. The story of the northern fur seal and
its Pribilof Islands home stands out as an exciting and encouraging example
of what can be accomplished through sound management, intensive research,
and international cooperation. From a point at which this valuable
resource had been hunted to near extinction by indiscriminate killing
in the open sea, the northern fur seal has been nurtured back to nearly
an optimum population level. The fur seal population dropped to a point
below 300,000 in 1910. Today the Alaska fur seal herd numbers an
estimated 1.4 million animals, a healthy population from which surplus
young males are selectively harvested on St. Paul Island. It is one of
the most dramatic conservation achievements recorded since man first
began making serious efforts to undo some of the damage he has inflicted
on his environment and the living natural resources it sustains.

Breeding Grounds of the Fur Seal

In addition to the Pribilof Islands, northern fur seals presently breed in
large numbers on the Commander Islands at the Soviet end of the Aleutian
chain, and on Robben Island off Sakhalin. Small populations of fur seals
breed on the Kuril Islands, between Kamchatka and Hokkaido, and on San
Miguel Island and Castle Rock off California. Approximately 80 percent
of the world population, however, breeds on the Pribilof Islands of St.
Paul, St. George and Sea Lion Rock.

The conservation of this migratory herd of fur seals is governed by an
international agreement between the United States, Canada, Japan, and
the Soviet Union. The United States has held jurisdiction oyer the
Pribilofs since the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 and has
closely managed the seal herd since 1911 through various Federal agencies,
currently the National Marine Fisheries Service. Previously the resource
was not always protected, and at several points in its history, the
northern fur seal was exploited to the brink of extinction.

Fur Sealing History

The story of modern man's involvement with the fur seal begins in the 18th
century. North American Indians and Aleuts had been taking fur seals
for many centuries previously for subsistence purposes and later for sale
of the skins to traders. George Wilhelm Steller, a German naturalist in
the service of Imperial Russia, was marooned on Bering Island in 1741.
The wrecked vessel, commanded by Vitus Bering, was returning to Kamchatka

after a voyage of exploration to North America. Intrigued by the
elaborate social structure of the seal and sea lion herds which thronged
the island, Steller built an observation blinc overlooking a fur seal
rookery. Here, he made a series of remarkably precise observations which
were published in 1751-one of the earliest behavior analyses of any
mamma 1 .

About 40 years later, adventurous sailing skippers from New England and
Europe discovered the commercial possibilities in the large herds of
southern fur seals along the coast of South America, Antarctica, and
South Africa. During the next half century, fur seal rookeries on Islo
Alejandro Selkirk (formerly Mas Afuera), Juan Fernandez, the South
Shetlands, Prince Edward, the Antipodes, and many other islands, were
destroyed as fast as they were discovered. Literally millions of pelts
were taken and populations of fur seals south of the Equator were decimated
rapidly. Some small groups survived, however, and still live off the
coasts of South Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the
Galapagos Islands, and some sub-Antarctic islands. Some have fully
recovered , such as the South African fur seal.

The next major phase in the chronology of the fur seal developed farther
north where the Russians had observed hordes of seals swimming north-
ward each spring through the passes of the Aleutian Islands, disappear-
ing into the fog and mist of the Bering Sea.

In 1783, Gerassim Pribilof, navigator in the service of Imperial Russia,
joined the search for breeding grounds outside the Commander Islands.
His discovery of St. George Island in 1786 and St. Paul in 1787 within the
group of islands that now bears his name, exposed the principal breeding
grounds and sanctuary of the northern fur seal to exploitation by man.
The unrestricted killing of seemingly uncountable numbers began, following
virtually the same pattern which nearly eliminated the southern fur seal.
Overnight the teeming rookeries of the Pribilofs became a source of
sealskins for the entire world, and an estimated 2.5 million pelts were
taken during the next few decades.

During this period, harvesting was uncontrolled and breeding females
were unprotected. In 1834, when it was obvious that the herd was facing
annihilation, Russia forbade the killing of females-and the fur seal
population began to recover. By 1867, when the United States purchased
Alaska from Russia, including the Pribilofs, the herd was reported to be
large and thriving.

During the first two years of U.S. jurisdiction, a number of indepen-
dent sealing companies were allowed to operate on the islands and in the
first season an estimated 200,000 to 300, 000 skins were taken, a number
now considered to be excessive for healthy management of the herd. To
halt this destruction, Congress in 1869 established the Pribilofs as a
special reservation to protect the animals while they were on their
breeding grounds, and in addition provided for a controlled harvest. The
U.S. Treasury Department was authorized to award the first of two

consecutive 20-year leases for sealing on the islands by private
companies and was charged with seeing that the lessees spared the females
and took only that number of young males specified by the Government.
Under the first 20-year lease the lessee was authorized to take 100,000
young males each year and in fact harvested just under two million seal-
skins during the contract period. The company awarded the second lease
was able to take only 342,651 seals probably because the
contract period coincided with the peak of pelagic sealing. This totally
unregulated operation, taking mostly females, was responsible for reducing
the Pribilof herd to a remnant of its former size.

Fans of Jack London will recall that the author's classic "Sea Wolf" was
a tale of swashbuckling open-sea sealing. Swashbuckling it may have been;
devastating to the seal population it definitely was. Pelagic sealing,
primarily by sealers from the United States, Canada, and Japan, reached
its peak in 1894 when 61,838 sealskins were taken. From 1889 to 1909, over
600,000 animals were taken—and at least that many or more were lost after
being wounded and not recovered. The herd had now been reduced from an
estimated two million to probably 300,000.

Pelagic sealing was even more disastrous to the Alaska herd than the catch
data indicate. Sealers working the high seas killed indiscriminately,
without regard to age or sex. Since females out-numbered males, because
of the distribution of the sexes at sea, from 60 to 80 percent of the
pelagic harvest consisted of females. Not only was all future reproduction
lost from the females killed, but dependent pups were left to starve on land

because a mother seal, with rare exceptions, nurses only her own pup .

Pelagic sealing was halted in July 1911 as part of an international
agreement when the United States, Great Britain (for Canada), Japan, and
Russia, meeting in Washington, concluded a convention for protection of
the North Pacific fur seals. In exchange for a ban on pelagic sealing,
the United States and Russia agreed to provide Japan and Great Britain each
with 15 percent of their sealskin harvests on rookery islands under their
jurisdiction. Japan, in turn, agreed to give the United States, Great
Britain, and Russia each 10 percent of its annual harvest on Robben Island.
Thus, the 1911 agreement became the instrument that finally gave much-
needed protection to the seal herds and also provided an economic gain
for the countries involved. It was the first significant step toward the
type of international cooperation required for survival of the fur seal.

Since 1910, the harvest of Alaska fur seals has been supervised and carried
out by the Federal Government, now by the Department of Commerce's National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine
Fisheries Service. Previously the Service's predecessor agencies carried
out this responsibility; first the Bureau of Fisheries in the Department
of Commerce and then the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Fish and Wildlife
Service, Department of the Interior.

To rebuild the depleted herd, Congress placed a ban on commercial killing
of fur seals on the Pribilofs from 1912 to 1917. Some seals were taken
each year for food for the residents of the islands. Since 1917, the fur
seal harvest has been under strict control, normally with only young males
taken in numbers determined to be surplus to maintenance of the herd. Under

this management, the population increased rapidly and by the
late 1930' s had become so abundant that Japan became concerned about the
predatory effects of the large fur seal herds on her valuable commercial
fisheries. In 1940 Japan announced intention to abrogate the fur seal treaty,
which she did in October 1941.

From 1942 until 1957, the Pribilof Islands herd was protected in the
central and eastern North Pacific Ocean by a provisional agreement between
Canada and the United States, which provided Canada with 20 percent of the
annual Pribilof sealskin harvest. Presumably there were no pelagic sealing
operations during this period, except for a few thousand seals taken
annually by the Japanese in the western North Pacific.

A new interim North Pacific Fur Seal Convention similar to the 1911
Convention was concluded in February 1957 by Canada (rather than Great
Britain), Japan, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United
States. It established a Fur Seal Commission comprised of representatives
of the four governments to coordinate research and management of the North
Pacific fur seal resource. This convention, which is still in existence,
also provides that Canada and Japan each receive 15 percent of the sealskins
taken commercially by the United States on the Pribilofs and by the U.S.S.R.
on the Commander Islands and Robben Island, which Japan lost to the U.S.S.R.
as a result of World War II treaties. The U.S.S.R. now has control of all
fur seal rookeries off the Asian coast. The Commission provided for a Stand-
ing Scientific Committee which meets annually to recommend research
programs and harvesting rates. Invariably the Committee's recommendations

are adopted by the Commission.

The Fur Seal Act of 1966, which put the convention into effect domes-
tically, renewed the authority of the Secretary of- the Interior to provide
for the conservation and protection of the fur seal and to administer the
Pribilof Islands as a Federal reservation. In October 1970, that authority
was transferred to the Department of Commerce where the National Marine
Fisheries Service, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, now supervises the harvest of fur seals on St. Paul Island,
largest of the Pribilof group.

In 1973, the United States proposed to the Commission a major research
program which involved setting aside St. George Island as a research
reserve. The Commission adopted this recommendation. Seals were last
harvested for commercial purposes on St. George in 1972, and an intensive
research program was initiated on the Pribilof Islands in 1973 to compare
population dynamics and behavior between the harvested population on St.
Paul and unharvested population on St. George. Results of this study are
expected to make a significant contribution to the scientific knowledge
required to maintain northern fur seal herds at the optimum level.

Physical Characteristics

The fur seal's physical features are remarkably adapted to meet its needs,
particularly at sea. The beautiful fur, of such quality that it almost
brought about the seal's extinction, has over 300,000 hairs per square inch
and is so impermeable to water that the skin remains dry even when the seal
rubs or scratches itself in the water.

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Body temperature is about 100° F (38° C) and overheating from unusual
exertion or sunshine when on land causes obvious discomfort. Body
temperature above 107° F (42° C) brings on heat prostration and usually
death.

The eyes are relatively large and the seal can see ^/ery well at night;
it feeds primarily at night since many important food species rise
to the upper water layers during darkness. The fur seal feeds mainly on
small schooling fishes such as anchovy, capelin, and herring, but will
take advantage of whatever species are available, generally pollock in
the Pribilof Islands area. In deep water areas, squid is a mainstay of
its diet. Anchovy, hake, saury, and rockfish are other principal foods
off California and Oregon. Off the coast of Washington, herring, rockfish,
salmon, and anchovy are leading foods, while herring and walleye pollock
make up a major part of its diet off southeastern Alaska. Capelin and
sand lance are important foods in the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands
passess, and the Bering Sea. However, pollock is especially important
in the Bering Sea. Analyses of stomach contents indicate that the fur
seal feeds on at least 54 species of fish and nine species of squid. The
fur seal diet is similar in the western North Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan,
and Okhotsk Sea.

Other physical characteristics help the seal to survive at sea. Its
nostrils can be voluntarily closed, and the external ears are small,
tightly rolled cylinders each with a narrow, waxy orifice that prevents the
entrance of water. Its 36 teeth are arranged so that each lower incisor

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Figure 1. An adult male approaching a female and her pup,

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fits into a notch in an upper incisor and the upper molars and premolars
interlock with the lowers, giving the seal such an efficient bite that no
fish or squid can escape.

Seals vary considerably in size and weight depending on sex and age (Fig. 1)
A newborn pup weighs 10 to 20 pounds (4.4-5.4 kg) and, if it survives, will
grow into a mature female weighing 95 to 110 pounds (43.1-49.9 kg) or an
adult male weighing from 400 to over 600 pounds (181.4-272.2 kg). Seals
selected for commercial harvesting are usually three and four year old
males averaging 62 pounds (28.1 kg) and 78 pounds (35.4 kg) respectively.
At birth, the average male is 26 inches (66 cm) long, but the female is an
inch (2. 5. cm) shorter. A large adult female measures 56 inches (142 cm),
tip of nose to tip of tail; a male, 84 inches (213 cm).

The color of a seal's fur varies considerably. The females and young males
are gray when dry and appear black when wet. After a few days ashore during
the breeding season, the fur of the breeding female is stained to a yellow-
ish-brown color by mud and excrement on the rookeries. Although cleaned
somewhat during trips to sea, the pelage is not restored to its original
color until molt occurs. Pups are black when born in early summer but
turn gray in September and October as a result of their first molt. Males
over six years old are predominantly brownish-black, but vary greatly and
may be dark gray or reddish brown. The male begins to develop a short
bushy mane on his shoulders and neck at about six years of age.

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Distribution of the Northern Fur Seal

The northern fur seal is a widely ranging mammal with migratory routes
extending down both sides of the North Pacific ocean to about 32° North
Latitude. On the eastern side, fur seals migrate southward to the
Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, California. In the western Pacific
Ocean, they range from the Commander Islands to seas southwest of Tokyo on
northern Honshu and into the Sea of Japan and Sea of Okhotsk.

Seals are most frequently found from 10 to 100 miles (16-145 km) offshore;
in most abundant numbers between 30 and 70 miles (48-113 km). Major
areas of concentration off North America are the Farallon Grounds extending
from Point Conception to Point Arena off California, the Vancouver Grounds
reaching .from south of the Columbia River to the north end of Vancouver
Island, the Fairweather Grounds. Seals also congregate on Portlock Bank
off Kodiak Island and near the Sanak Islands. Full grown males winter
principally in Alaskan waters and are seen most frequently in the Gulf of
Alaska.

International research reveals a considerable amount of intermixing between
seals from Americaiand Asian islands. Tagging studies suggest that
roughly 20 to 30 percent of the seals of ages three to five years that are
found off the coast of Japan in winter and spring come from the Pribilof
Islands. Also it appears that male seals from the Commander Islands make
up about one percent of the annual commercial kill of seals on the Pribilofs
and that the Pribilofs contribute about 10 to 25 percent of the seals
harvested each year on the Commander Islands. Over 96 percent of the fur

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seals found off Western North America are from the Pribilof Islands.

Unless sick or injured, fur seals rarely touch land from the time they
leave their rookery islands in the fall until they return the following
year. Most people living along coastal areas of the Western United States
are unaware that many thousands of fur seals feed and rest for several
winter months in the nearby ocean, particularly off California. They often
are seen asleep on the ocean surface, floating on their side or back, with
all four flippers folded or with one or more stretched into the air. On the
island rookeries, however, all such languor disappears and activity continues
unabated, day and night.

Fur Seal Reproduction

Snowdrifts have not melted completely on the mist-shrouded Pribilofs when,
in late May and early June, the big breeding males begin to appear on the
three islands that have rookeries: St. Paul, St. George, and Sea Lion Rock.
Between 10 and 17 years of age and heavy with fat from the long winter's
feeding, the males lumber ashore where each establishes his own individual
territory. Other adult males enter a belligerent "beachmaster's" personal
territory only at considerable risk.

The adult males enjoy a brief period of rest on land but after mid-June
when the females begin to arrive, there is little respite for the huge
"beachmasters" . Each male vigorously defends his territory and intercepts
as many of the relatively docile mature females as he can when they attempt
to pass nearby on their way from the sea onto the rookery. The number of

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females in a male's territory varies from 1 to 100 (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5), but
the average is about 60. Day and night the air is filled with the bleating
of females and young and the roars of the mighty "beachmasters" as each
defends his territory against his neighbor and keeps the unbred females
"home" through intimidation or force. Battles between males are frequent
and sometimes savage. From May until the end of the breeding season, they
gradually lose the layers of fat with which they came ashore (Fig. 6).

After a one year gestation period, the pregnant female gives birth to a
12-pound pup within 48 hours after she comes on land, and mates again
within a week. Because of an unusual reproductive cycle, however, develop-
ment of her newly formed embryo is halted at an early stage for about four
months, or until November, when implantation in the uterus occurs and fetal
growth begins anew.

Fur seal pups can swim at birth. They first venture into the water when

about four weeks old, and gradually increase their stay there through the

weeks ahead. In November the pups leave the rookeries on a swim destined
to last as long as two years for some.

The pups are active and precocious, with wide-open eyes. Coats of black
hair are molted and replaced by fur in the autumn. They depend entirely on
the mother's milk for food and the female generally stays close to her
pup for several days, then goes to sea to feed where she may remain for a
week and travel as far as 200 miles from the rookery. When she returns,
the pup takes on several times more milk than would a human infant of
the same body weight. The pup must obtain enough of the rick milk,

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Figure 2. 13 JUNE - By mid-June most of the "beachmasters" have
established their territories and await the arrival of the females.
Most fur seals of breeding age return to the rookery of their birth.

17

-^"

Figure 3. 28 JUNE

By late June the first females arrive and the

adult males begin to gather them into their territories. The pups are
born soon after the females come ashore. As the pups grow stronger, they
eventually form groups or pods and wander over the rookery, while their
mothers spend much time at sea searching for food.

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Figure 4. 8 JULY - In early July the groups remain closely knit on the
crowded rookeries.

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Figure 5. 3 AUGUST - In late July or early August the organized social
structure begins to break up and the animals start to spread out.

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Figure 6. Adult male seal

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containing about 50 percent butterfat, to survive between the widely-
spaced feedings. The mother seal feeds only her own pup and, despite
lengthy absences between nursings, finds her own among the thousands of
pups on the rookery.

The female seals nurse their young for three to four months, and are
completely protected on the rookery from all human activity except minor
disturbances associated with scientific research to enumerate the population

As the weather worsens in November, the fur seals leave their Pribilof
breedings grounds to spend the next several months at sea, until the
reproductive cycle begins anew the following summer.

Early mortality among the pups is high. Many succumb to disease, injury,
and malnutrition on the islands before starting their migration; others
become prey for northern sea lions and presumably to killer whales and
sharks; still more are lost in storms at sea. Yet more than enough young
seals survive each year to maintain a large, healthy herd.

Sealing Operations on the Pribilofs

Young subadult male seals up to nine years of age, not yet strong enough
or old enough to compete with the fully matured beachmasters, congregate
on hauling grounds apart from the rookeries (Fig. 7). An occasional
brave subadult as young as age seven years may attract a female or two
and become part of the breeding structure, but most of the younger males
are not permitted on the rookeries until the active breeding season ends
in early August. At this time, some young females making their first

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#^^T ** -4]

Figure 7. A part of the Tolstoi Rookery on St. Paul Island showing the
social structure of northern fur seals during the breeding season. In
the foreground are the breeding seals and pups. Beyond the margin of
the breeding area are massed the idle males, seven to nine years old.
Still other idle males wait attentively just offshore, apparently for an
opportunity to barge into the breeding area to forcefully displace an
exhausted beachmaster.

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appearance on the rookeries may breed with these young males.

It is from these hauling grounds that the younger fur seals, primarily
three and four year old male animals, are driven for the annual harvest of
skins. Because the number of males and females at birth is approximately
equal, and since adult males control and breed an average of 60 females
each, the majority of these young males are surplus to proper maintenance
of the herd. Thus a properly managed taking of young males does not
endanger the reproductive capacity of the herd.

National Marine Fisheries Service managers and scientists travel to the
Pribilof Islands each year to supervise the harvest of fur seals and to
carry out biological research on these animals. Son? of the Aleut residents
work in all phases of the harvest and in parts of the scientific research
program.

Removing subadult male seals from the hauling grounds is comparatively
easy. Since they are apart from the rookery, harvest acts do not disturb
breeding animals on the rookeries. Daybreak of each morning from late
June until late July finds the Aleut sealers on one or more hauling
grounds. From these hauling areas, they drive the seals a short distance
inland from the beaches to suitable harvesting grounds. Because of their
insulating fur, the seals are driven slowly and given rest periods as
needed to avoid discomfort and possible heat prostration. Small pods con-
taining about six seals are separated from the main group and herded to the
stunners where each animal is dispatched by first stunning it with a
single blow to the head, then immediately severing the main blood vessels

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of the heart. Blood pressure immediately drops to zero and death is
virtually instantaneous. Females and animals larger or smaller than
the size limits set are permitted to escape and rejoin the herd.

During recent years a great deal of investigation has been done to assure
that the method used to harvest seals on the Pribilof Islands is the most
humane possible. Various Government-sponsored and non-Government groups
have examined the methods used. These groups include the World Federation
for the Protection of Animals, a Task Force to Study Alternative Methods
of Harvesting Fur Seals, the Virginia Mason Research Foundation, a veterinary
panel composed of members of the American Veterinary Medical Association's
Research Panel on Euthanasia, and the Battel le Institute of Columbus, Ohio.
The conclusions reached were that the method in use is a rapid, highly
efficient and humane method of harvesting the fur seals. Various recommen-
dations were made to improve the harvesting procedures and these have been
adopted. A continuing review of the harvesting methods is maintained as
well as close relationship with the American Veterinary Medicine Association
and the Department of Agriculture to assure that the National Marine
Fisheries Service is familiar with current research and practices regarding
the humane killing of domestic livestock and other animals.

After the pelts are taken, they are transported to a processing plant

on the island where they are cooled, washed, and the fat or blubber removed

(Fig. 8). The pelts are then cured in brine, allowed to drain, treated

with salt and boric acid, packed in containers for shipment and transported

to other locations in the U.S. for sale and the further processing needed
to finish them into high quality furs. The meat is used primarily as

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Figure 8. In years past, the fat (blubber) was removed manually from
the sealskins. Machines are now used for this phase of the operation,

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mink food; however the Aleut inhabitants of the Islands eat a considerable
amount as a desired part of their diet.

Managing the Fur Seal Herd

From the time the Federal government assumed responsibility for management
of the fur seal herd in 1910, it has adhered to a policy of taking only those
animals considered surplus to breeding requirements. The harvest was
restricted essentially to young males, from 1911 through 1955, although a
few females were mistakenly killed each year and some were taken for
research from time to time. From 1904 through 1912 and again from 1923
to 1932, a minimum yearly breeding reserve of several thousand subadult
males was provided by marking them with a brand or shearing a patch of fur,
then permitting them to return to the sea. An adequate breeding stock was
further assured by limiting the killing season each year to a period from
the latter part of June to the end of July and by taking only those male
seals within prescribed body-length limits.

By 1956, a climbing mortality rate among the pups on land alerted scien-
tists to the possibility that the seal population was too high. Therefore,
a program was begun under the auspices of the North Pacific Fur Seal
Commission to reduce the number of pups born annually by removing pres-
cribed numbers of breeding females from the herd over a period of several
years. The number of breeding females was reduced because all available
evidence (increasing pup mortality on land, wide fluctuations in the
annual harvest of males, and failure of the trend in the harvest of males
to continue the spectacular increase which began in the 1920's) indicated

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that the population was above the level which would provide the maximum
sustainable productivity required by the treaty. A reduction of herd
size to reach the level of maximum sustainable producitvity is based on
the premise that if a population is allowed to expand to its natural peak,
there is an accompanying increase in the death rate attributable to such
factors as insufficient food, disease, and injuries associated with over-
crowding.

Managers of the fur seal resource of the Pribilof Islands have been con-
ducting research to determine the population level at which the birth rate
is the highest and the death rate from natural causes is lowest, which
in turn allows a maximum sustainable harvest. Scientists have estimated
that the maximum sustainable productivity for the Pribilof fur seals is
attained when 350,000 to 400,000 pups are born per year. The number of
pups born annually is now within this range; however, the death rate of
young animals at sea apparently has increased in recent years and extensive
experimentation is underway to determine the cause.

The harvesting of seals on St. George Island was terminated so that the
rookery and hauling ground complexes there might become a research control
area in a major scientific research program to compare a harvested population
(St. Paul) to an unharvested population (St. George). Research is underway
to determine the size of various herd elements, causes of death among pups,
and behavior of all the animals as related to reproduction. Another phase
of the program involves the collection of data at sea on abundance and
distribution of seals, as well as on feeding habits and availability of

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prey species.

Scientists of the National Marine Fisheries Service monitor several herd
elements each year to determine how the resource is responding to management
practices. An estimate of the number of pups born is obtained and the
number that survive to harvestable ages is determined. The number of adult
males on the rookeries and hauling grounds is counted as a check on the
adequacy of numbers of young males permitted to escape the harvest (Fig. 9).
Pups that die on the rookeries are counted to provide additional information
on early mortality, and dead pups collected from study areas are examined
for causes of death.

Developing and applying correct management practices for the seals is a
continuing process and improvements are made as new information becomes
available—all part of the long-term program to assure that the Pribilofs
will always be blessed with an abundance of northern fur seals.

The Human Factor

With the Pribilof spotlight focused so intently upon the seal, there
sometimes is a tendency to forget that humans are very much involved-
humans whose own existence is closely interwoven with the welfare of the
northern fur seal .

When the U.S. Government assumed responsibility for the Pribilof fur seal,
it also assumed responsibility for the inhabitants of the Pribilof Islands-
Aleuts who were taken there from the Aleutian Islands by the Russians nearly
two centuries ago to provide a labor force for harvesting seals.

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Figure 9. Scientist counting adult males. Tripods and catwalks provide
safe vantage points for the observer. The bamboo pole is carried as an
aid in counting and to ward off aggressive bulls.

30

Federal Government responsibilities associated with fur seal management
provides the major source of income for the Aleuts who live in the two
Pribilof communities on St. Paul and St. George Islands. All workers
employed by the United States receive standard government wages in
accordance with the work performed and the time employed. The Aleut
Community of St. Paul, the City of St. Paul, the U.S. Postal Service,
National Weather Service, and U.S. Coast Guard also provide some employment.
The Tanadgusix Corporation and Tanaq Corporation, on St. Paul and St.
George respectively, also offer training and work in their expanding enter-
prises.

St. Paul (Fig. 10), the larger of the two inhabited islands, is home to
about 450 residents and St. George has a population of about 150 people.
Some of the present residents can trace their ancestry back for 180 years;
more than 95 percent of the inhabitants were born on the Pribilofs.

The island villages have facilities comparable to those of many towns
in Alaska, including frame houses, electrical service, water, police
department, volunteer fire department, and sewer systems. St. Paul has
year-round commercial airline service; St. George has twice monthly air-
charter service. Both communities boast of color TV stations. St. Paul
has several local businesses: a hotel with dining room, two cafes, a movie
house, grocery store, post office, tavern, barber shop, laundry and gasoline
station. Satellite telephone communications began service in May 1976,
and practically ewery family has at least a short-wave or long-wave radio.
Local and inter-island communications are conducted by radio.

31

Figure 10. Part of the village of St. Paul on the south cape of St. Paul
Island is close to several seal rookeries, including Reef, one of the
larger.

32

The school building in use on St. George Island was built in 1955; a new
school was completed on St. Paul in 1973. Education to the 10th year is
available on St. Paul Island. Elementary education only is available on
St. George. To complete their high-school education, or continue with
additional training, Pribilof youngsters must go to the mainland.

The Aleuts are U.S. citizens who vote in local, State, and national elections

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 is stimulating many
changes for the Aleut people of St. Paul and St. George. The land and
houses will no longer be solely owned by the Federal Government as a
special reservation. For the first time, the homes will be privately owned
by the people residing in them and a large percentage of the land on St.
Paul and St. George Islands will be owned by the two Corporations represent-
ing the two villages. Buildings surplus to Government needs have been
released for selection by the Corporations. The Government has retained
that land necessary for administering the seal herds and carrying out other
obligations under the Fur Seal Act including the seal rookeries, air strips,
utility systems, and other facilities and land necessary.

Since both federal and private land will occur side by side, a substantial
mutual interest exists between the National Marine Fisheries Service and
the Aleut people in the cooperative use of this land in the joint interest
of the resident people and the fur seals and other wildlife. A Joint
Management Board has been formed and a Joint Management Agreement drawn up
for the sole purpose of providing guidelines for the joint use of various
facil ities.

33

The Pribilofs are a remote treeless group of islands with a reasonably
mild climate for such a northern latitude. Agriculture is nonexistent.
During an extremely brief growing season in the summer, however, dozens
of varieties of wildflowers of rare color and beauty spread over the
landscape. Bird lovers and scientists equipped with cameras and
binoculars and other special equipment come from all over the world to see
tufted puffins, murres, kittiwakes, pelagic cormorants, and many other
species. A small herd of reindeer roams St. Paul Island and visitors
driving along the roadways may see blue Arctic foxes sitting outside dens
with their young.

It is the story of the northern fur seal, however, whose herds have been
returned to a healthy, stable condition, and the Aleuts, a people success-
fully undergoing a cultural and economic transition, upon which the true
drama of the Pribilofs is based. With a continued spirit of international
cooperation, dedicated research programs such as the St. George Island
reserve, sound management, and a serious concern about the lands and
waters where the fur seals return to breed, history can be assured that this
magnificent animal will continue its annual migration to the Pribilofs-to
the benefit of both the seals and the humans who share this island home.

34

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